Downloadable Content Wars

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How do the three current-gen consoles stack up?

By Daemon Hatfield

Gamers are now living in a downloadable world, with each current-gen console offering its own selections of digital content. Market analysis firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) has released the results of a study showing (unsurprisingly) downloadable content means higher sales for publishers. DLC can almost double the revenue seen from a single title.

What is more interesting are the data break downs EEDAR provides showing the differences between each console's downloadable offerings and the success they are enjoying (or striving for). For instance, the pool of Xbox 360 games that have DLC available have sold 129 percent more than the games that don't. Over on the PlayStation 3, games with DLC sold only 16 percent more.

The Wii leads in the amount of downloadable games on offer. The study sampled the period from November 2005 to June 2007, and at the end of the study there were 187 downloadable games available on "console storefronts." EEDAR found that 51 percent of these games were on the Wii. The 360 has the most original games. But across all platforms, only 12 percent of downloadable games are original titles. The rest are re-releases.

The PS3 charges the most for its DLC: an average of $1.97. On the other hand, 80 percent of the PS3's DLC is free, while only 29 percent is gratis on the 360.

The 360 has by far the widest amount of DLC on offer -- 106.5GB in all. By comparison, the PS3 has only 19.2GB of content.

Of the downloadable games available on the 360, 84 percent makes some use of online functionality such as leaderboards, online multiplayer, voice chat, stat tracking&#Array; On the PS3 that number is 45 percent, while on the Wii it is zero percent.

Here are some more fun stats, straight from EEDAR:

Downloadable Games

PS3 Prices range from $4.99 to $19.99, Median of $5.99, Average $6.17

Wii range from $1.00 - $10.00, Median of $6.00, Average $6.69

Xbox 360 range from $5 - $15, Median of $10, Average $7.53

The Wii released 95 titles in its first 7 months

The PlayStation 3 released 29 Titles in its first 7 months

The Xbox 360 released 21 Titles in its first 7 months

Downloadable Game Content (Not Including Movies/Music/TV Shows)

On Average, Seventh Generation retail games with both a downloadable demo and trailer generate 69% more revenue than games without either

On Average, Seventh Generation retail games with a downloadable demo generate 62% more revenue than games without either a demo or a trailer

On Average, Seventh Generation retail games with a downloadable trailer generate 72% more revenue than games without either a demo or a trailer

The total value of all Xbox 360 downloadable content is worth more than 40 times as much as the total value of all PlayStation 3 downloadable content

Average price of downloadable content is between $1.69 (Xbox 360) and $1.97 (PS3)